Changes in human settlement environments and their drivers in valley cities located in arid and semi-arid regions:A case study of Lanzhou in Western China

Development of urban human settlement environments(HSEs)is an integral part of promoting high-quality and sustainable regional development and constructing a beautiful China.The city of Lanzhou,located at the geometric center of China,is the only provincial capital traversed by the Yellow River.Given the constraints posed by the valley topography and the need for economic development,the development of this HSE,which is located within an arid region,poses considerable challenges.Evidently,an understanding of the evolution of HSEs and drivers of changes in them contributes to high-quality,sustainable urban development in arid and semi-arid regions.An analytical model was developed using the parameters of relief degree of land surface,human comfort days,the land cover index,nighttime light index,and precipitation.This model was used in combination with population density and the gross domestic product to analyze the spatial distribution of Lanzhou's HSE and its drivers.The results showed that landscapes in Lanzhou underwent significant changes between 2000 and 2022,with an increase in building-up land(+0.946%),cultivated land(+0.134%),and forest land(+0.018%)and a decrease in grassland(-1.10%).There was significant outward expansion of the main urban zone of Lanzhou and of various county towns,with the increase in building-up land being most prominent.During this period,there were significant changes in the periphery of the core urban area and county towns in Lanzhou,with decreases moving from the urban center(the highest value)to the surrounding areas(Yongdeng County had the lowest value).The correlation between the HSE and population density grew stronger in Anning and Chengguan Districts but became weaker in Xigu and Qilihe Districts.Spatiotemporal variations in the HSE were primarily caused by climate change,followed by human activities,and were also influenced by the valley topography.Overall,the spatial distribution of population density and the HSE in Lanzhou demonstrated good consistency under the in-fluence of economic development and urbanization.

Reflections on the Improvement of Rural Human Settlement Environment from the Perspective of Beauty and Livability

The construction of beautiful and livable villages is one of the important tasks of ruralrevitalization in the new era, and the development of rural areas attaches more and more importanceto the improvement of human settlement environment. By investigating the construction status andexisting problems of Zhaoba Village in Nanjing, it tries to take “beauty” and “livability” as the planningrequirements. The village positioning is planned accurately, and the functional layout is carried outreasonably. According to the characteristic industries, landscape features and infrastructure of ZhaobaVillage, humanized construction strategies are put forward, thus improving the quality of human settlementenvironment in Zhaoba Village.

Natural environment suitability for human settlements in China based on GIS

With the degeneration of environment and acceleration of urbanization,human environment has attracted great attention worldwide.This paper sets up the Human Settlements Environment Index(HEI) model and evaluates the natural environment suitability for Human Settlements in China based on GIS technology.The results show that the HEI of China decreases from southeast to northwest in general,HEI is significantly correlated with population density at grid size and the correlation coefficient(r) between them reaches 0.93,which indicates that natural environment suitability for Human Settlements has a significant influence on population distribution.Most people in China mainly concentrate in areas with high natural environment suitability.The total suitable area is 430.47×104 km2,which accounts for nearly 45% of the total land area in China,while the proportion of people living in the area reaches 96.56%.With a population density of 18 people per square kilometer,the critical area is the transitional region for people to live in China.The critical area covers 225.11×104 km2 with a population of 41.12 million.The non-suitable area covers 304.42×104 km2 with a population of only 2.49 million.

Evaluation on the human settlements environment suitability in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area of Chongqing based on RS and GIS

To explore geographical differences in quantitative characteristics and spatial pattern of human settlements environmental suitability （HSES） in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area （TGRA）, terrain, climate, hydrology, vegetation and other natural factors were selected to build the livable environmental evaluation, and the quantitative analysis was conducted through Remote Sensing（RS） and Geographic Informational System （GIS） to reveal geo- graphical characteristics and spatial patterns of HSES. The results are obtained as follows： （1） inhabitants of the TGRA of Chongqing are concentrated in the area with moderate h.igh HSES, which is 78% of the total population distributed in 48% of the study area; （2） the HSES is closely related to the terrain, and it forms an arc-banded spatial succession pattern： relatively low in the northeast and the southeast while comparatively high in the west and the south; （3） large numbers of people are distributed in the area with low suitability （with higher population density than the average of the western China）, but economic development level in these areas is quite low. Moreover, these areas are ecological sensitive and fragile, many kinds of eco-environmental problems have been caused by human activities. Therefore, population migration and layout are reasonable options for the development of these areas.

Protection and Management for Ancient Villages from the Perspective of Human Settlement Environment——A Case Study of Xichong Village,Sikou Town,Wuyuan County

As urbanization continues, traditional villages are confronted by the conflict between protection and development, especially for ancient villages in living envi- ronment. China landscape is so vast, dominated by rural areas. Human settlement environment of ancient villages is so important for studying domestic human settle- ment environment, including ancient structure analysis and eco-resource organization. The research explored Xichong Village, Sikou Town, Wuyuan County and detailed how to improve its environment, providing references for ancient village development in settlement environment.

Difficulties and Countermeasures of Rural Human Settlement Environment Governance in Tianjin

The course of rural human settlement environment governance in Tianjin could be roughly divided into four stages:germination,initiation,promotion and deepening.After the development for nearly 20 years,rural human settlement environment governance of Tianjin is faced with many difficulties,such as imperfect village construction planning,poor use effect of sewage facilities,low participation of farmers,and insufficient financial investment.Therefore,some countermeasures and suggestions are put forward,such as scientific planning and overall consideration,innovating financing mechanism,encouraging diversified investment of funds,and strengthening the publicity of rural human settlement environment governance.

Fringe View: Problems and Construction of Human Settlement Environment for "Village-in-City"

The construction of human settlement environment is one of the important contents in the domain of sustainable development. We try to annotate human settlement environment for "village- in-city" from the angle of fringe view. According to the macro-system thought of human settlement environment science, the evolvement, which can be generalized into four phases, connotation and problems (including social, economic, and environmental problems) of "village-in-city" are discussed primarily in this paper. Some domestic and international researches and practices are also summarized and assessed in the paper. Based on the analysis, some appropriate clues and suggestions for the construction of "village-in-city" have been put forward.

Human settlement's social network analysis based on spatial trend surface model:a case study of Chongqing Municipality

Integrated with GIS and remote sensing(RS) technology,a systematic analysis and its methodology for human-settlements social environment has been introduced.This methodology has been called spatial trend field model(STFM).STFM's application history in the field of human-settlements social environment has been discussed at first.Then,some index data models have been created through STFM,which include population density trend field,human activity strength trend field,city-town spatial density trend field,urbanization ratio trend field,road density trend field,GDP spatial density trend field and PER-GDP spatial density trend field.With all above-mentioned indexes as input data,through Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Techniques Algorithm(ISODATA),this paper makes a verification study of Chongqing municipality.The result of the case study confirms that STFM methodology is credible and has high efficiency for regional human-settlements study.

Human Settlement Analysis Based on Multi-temporal Remote Sensing Data： A Case Study of Xuzhou City, China

To evaluate urban human settlement, we propose a human settlement environment development index(HSEDI) model by choosing vegetation coverage, land surface temperature, impervious surfaces, slope, wetness, and water condition as the evaluation factors. We applied the proposed model to Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China. Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper(TM) images from 1998 to 2010 and digital elevation model(DEM) data with a 30-m resolution were used to calculate the values of the six evaluation factors. The HSEDI value in Xuzhou City was found to be between 2.24 and 8.10 from 1998 to 2010, and it was further divided into five levels, uninhabitable, moderately uninhabitable, generally inhabitable, moderately inhabitable, and inhabitable. The best HSEDI value was in 2007. The generally inhabitable region was about 100.98 km^2, covering 30.87% of the total area in 2007; the moderately inhabitable region was about 170.58 km2 covering 52.15% of the total area; the inhabitable region was about 32.03 km^2, covering 9.79% of the total area; the percentage of the uninhabitable region was zero; and that of the moderately uninhabitable region was very small, less than 1.00%. Moreover, we analyzed the habitability in the respect of spatial patterns and change detection. Results show that the degraded regions of habitability quality are mainly located in the urban fringe and the improved regions are mainly located in the main urban and rural areas. Reason for the degraded habitability quality is the rapid progress of urbanization. However, the increase in urban green spaces and the construction of the main urban area promoted the improved habitability quality. Besides, we further analyzed socio-economic and socio-demographic data to confirm the results of the habitability analysis. The results indicate that the human settlement in Xuzhou City is in a satisfactory condition, but some efforts should be made to control the possible uninhabitable and moderately uninhabitable regions, and to improve the quality of the generally inhabitable regions.

Analysis of the Choice of Return Mechanism of PPP Model in Rural Human Settlement Improvement under the Rural Revitalization Strat­egy:Research Based on the Perspective of Evolutionary Game

The improvement of rural human settlement environment is a significant direction of the rural revitalization strategy.Based on the finite rational evolutionary game theory,a cooperative behavior evolutionary game model of rural human settlement environment improvement PPP model with local government,social capital and rural residents as the main game players with the reward mechanism of Government Payment and one with the reward mechanism of Viability Gap Funding are constructed.Comparing the total project revenue of two reward mechanisms,the thesis will obtain the effects of choosing the reward mechanism of rural human settlement improvement PPP.Finally,available suggestions are made to the decision of the reward mechanism of PPP project about rural human settlement environment,thus promoting the application and development of PPP in rural environmental management and to promote sustainable improvement of rural habitat improvement.

Uncertainty evaluation of the coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy in Changsha city

The coordinated development of human settlement environment and economy is of vital significance to urban sustainable development and urban ecosystem health. Urban human settlement and economic systems exist in urban ecosystems, which are a structural complexity. Therefore the research is being challenged by some uncertain factors between human settlements and economic systems. However most of the researches were focused on its determinate objective aspects and qualitative analyses while less concern on the quanti- tative evaluation of coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy, especially little on its uncertain aspect. At present, the urgent task is to study the coordinated development of urban settlement environment and economy in terms of the effect of uncertainty. This study analyzed the uncertain characteristics, which would be confronted at different stages, such as confirming the index categories, their bound values, and their construction rate, etc. According to the actual urban conditions, many construction principles based on uncertainties are put forward and an indicating system for human settlement and economic evaluation is established. Moreover, the application of fuzzy mathematics presents a new method and a calculation model for the comprehensive assessment of the coordinated development of urban human settlement environment and economy. The application of the method and model in Changsha city of China showed that the assessment results can reflect not only the overall coordination degree of the city, but also the mode of interactive mechanism between urban economic system and human settlement environment.